The fact is that Islamic feminists in western countries, and especially in France, struggle with identity affiliations and fight against multiple forms of oppression that bind them to post-colonial and anti-racist movements.

Ukrainian riot police fought protesters occupying a central Kyiv square early today (19 February) after the bloodiest day since the former Soviet republic, caught in a geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West, won its independence. At least 22 people have lost their lives in less than 24 hours.

After hours of clashes, police were gaining ground in Independence Square, centre of three months of protests against President Viktor Yanukovich, but demonstrators managed to find protection behind a burning barricade of tires and wood.

A voice of encouragement to the protesting citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Over the past few weeks the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been rallying against their municipal, cantonal, and federal governments. These protests were sparked by the decades of economic stagnation, social inequality, endemic corruption, domination of particracy, impotence of state institutions, and an ever greater distancing of the small ruling kleptocracy from the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Recent unrest in Bosnia has exposed the age-old dilemma about democracy once again: is democracy procedural or substantive? In other words, are procedures required by basic democratic standards, such as political equality, freedom of speech and free elections, sufficient for democracy? Does it matter what kind of outcomes result from democratic procedures? Is democracy a matter of a particular way of doing politics, or a matter of particular content of democratic decision-making?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned today (18 February) against rushing to retaliate against Switzerland for its vote to curb immigration, saying Europe’s own interests were best served by waiting to see how the Swiss implement the referendum result.

“It can’t be that because one side did something in one specific area that the other side says nothing works in other areas,” Merkel said after talks with Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, who is also the country’s foreign minister

Scottish independence does not secure Edinburgh EU membership per se, as European Commission President José Manuel Barroso stressed the scenario would be unprecedented. Many stumbling blocks lie on the path towards membership, including the euro, the ever-changing acquis communautaire and the required unanimity amongst member states, writes Andrew Duff.

President Barroso’s intervention in the debate about the future of an independent Scotland in the EU has made the point, forcefully, that nothing is certain other than that the situation is wholly without precedent and mightily complex. Mr Barroso is right to point out that Spain will be a reluctant party to any Scottish separatist negotiation because of Catalonia. The same applies to Cyprus and Greece because of the threat of recognition of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. Belgium, with its tetchy Flemish nationalists, is unlikely to be overjoyed

Barroso said in an interview yesterday (16 February) it would be nearly impossible for the European Union to grant membership to such states – days after the British government said an independent Scotland would not be able to keep sterling as its currency.

Italy’s Prime Minister-designate Matteo Renzi on Monday announced plans to reform the labour market, state administration and tax system as quickly as possible after being tasked with forming a new government by President Giorgio Napolitano. Renzi must not fail, but first he will have to find a majority to support his ambitious plans, commentators point out.